NLIRH stands up for women’s health

Reproductive rights are under attack, with federal funding for family planning via Planned Parenthood at it’s center. We need to respond with urgency to this matter. About six thousand people definitely felt that urgency on Saturday afternoon in Foley Square, NYC, where we rallied to make sure that their voices are heard and that the message is clear–we’re not going to let our reproductive health care go down without a fight. Planned Parenthood and other clinics that receive Title X money make STD testing affordable and provides around 2.5 million women with contraceptives thus preventing many unplanned pregnancies. Planned Parenthood also provides over a million cervical cancer screenings and over 800,000 breast exams annually, detecting cancers at an early enough stage and keeping those cancers from claiming lives.

An attack on Planned Parenthood is, as President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Cecile Richards said, “a war on women’s health, and it must stop.” Planned Parenthood provides services to just under 5 million individuals; the debilitating effects that the proposed federal cuts would have on the 800 clinics nationwide are particularly dangerous for low and middle-income women and women of color, who oftentimes may not otherwise have access to the vital services that Planned Parenthood provides.

Senator Chuck Schumer offered comforting words promising that the proposed cuts would not pass in the Senate, and Obama’s administration has threatened to veto the House Republicans’ budget proposal, but we as individuals cannot and should not be appeased into non-action by those words. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke from Brooklyn sharply stated on Saturday that, “Our democracy is not a spectator sport!” She went on to say that we have an obligation to our respective humanity and that we need to show up and finish the fight for our rights, for our aspirations; we must not allow the House GOP’s backwards agenda to take us back to “the 1950s,” before important movements granted many of us the rights we enjoy today.

It was invigorating to stand amongst allies of every race and gender on Saturday and to hear many speak words of anger against what is happening in our government, and words of encouragement for moving forward and stopping the attack on the health of women. But a feel-good rally is not enough. It is only the beginning, meant to revive us into action. We must maintain that anger, motivated by love, and continue to voice our opposition to the proposed cuts to Planned Parenthood, not just to stop the proposition from moving any further, but also to explain to the opposition just how big of a contribution women make to society. The imminent threat of government shutdown is very real, but cutting funding to Planned Parenthood is NOT the answer. “The unintended consequences of those budget cuts will come back in many, many ways to harm this nation,” believes Rep. John Geramendi (D-CA).

All the arguments in favor of cutting spending to Planned Parenthood focus solely on abortion services, but federal funding does not pay directly for any abortion services as per the Hyde Amendment.

NLIRH firmly stands behind a woman’s right to choose how she lives out her reproductive life and helps to ensure that women, particularly women of color and Latina women who are often excluded from discourse about reproductive rights have the means to make personal decisions and execute them in a healthy manner. We stand in solidarity with Planned Parenthood.

What are you doing to help stop the budget cuts to Planned Parenthood? What are you doing to stand up for your rights, or to stand in solidarity with the important women in your life? Now is not the time to be silent. Now is the time to make your voice heard!